1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to a surgical stapling device for applying surgical staples to body tissue. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a surgical stapling device suitable for performing circular anastomosis of hollow tissue organs.
2. Background to Related Art
Anastomosis is the surgical joining of separate hollow organ sections. Typically, an anastomosis procedure follows surgery in which a diseased or defective section of hollow tissue is removed and the remaining end sections are to be joined. Depending on the desired anastomosis procedure, the end sections may be joined by either circular, end-to-side or side-to-side organ reconstruction methods.
In a circular anastomosis procedure, the two ends of the organ sections are joined by means of a stapling instrument which drives a circular array of staples through the end section of each organ section and simultaneously cores any tissue interior of the driven circular array of staples to free the tubular passage. Examples of instruments for performing circular anastomosis of hollow organs are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,053,390, 5,588,579, 5,119,983, 5,005,749, 4,646,745, 4,576,167, and 4,473,077, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Typically, these instruments include an elongated shaft having a handle portion at a proximal end to actuate the instrument and a staple holding component disposed at a distal end. An anvil assembly including an anvil rod with attached anvil head is mounted to the distal end adjacent the staple holding component. Opposed end portions of tissue of the organs to be stapled are clamped between the anvil head and the staple holding component. The clamped tissue is stapled by driving one or more staples from the staple holding component so that the ends of the staples pass through the tissue and are deformed by the anvil head.
In use, the staple holding component and anvil assembly are positioned within opposed sections of the organs to be joined and are not visible to the surgeon. Typically, an indicator is provided on the stapling device which is visible to the surgeon to identify when the anvil assembly and staple holding portion have been sufficiently approximated such that the device is in a fire-ready position. Conventional indicators include indicia which is moved to a position visible to a surgeon when the device has been approximated. Such indicia is sometimes difficult to view.
Accordingly, a need exists for a stapling device with an approximation/fire-ready indicator which prominently displays indicia which is easily viewable by a surgeon.